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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26605087">Retirement</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/kayewritessometimes/pseuds/kayewritessometimes'>kayewritessometimes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Assassination, Gen, Implied/Referenced Murder, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Not Beta Read, Original Character-centric, Retired kunoichi, Retirement</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 04:16:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>896</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26605087</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/kayewritessometimes/pseuds/kayewritessometimes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ueno Hiroko, a retired kunoichi, lives a quiet life in a small village too far from a proper Ninja village to have anything to do with her previous occupation. She’s done with that life, honest. But when the son of the village Healer comes to her with a mission— an assassination of his own father for what the man’s done to the kid’s sister for years— well, she can’t help but do the mission for free. Along the way, Hiroko admits to herself that she's become a bit of a softie in retirement.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Retirement</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Loosely based on this prompt: "You are an assassin. A little girl has just come up to you, handed you all her pocket money, and asked you to kill her abusive relative."</p><p>I thought it'd fit well with a ninja, and I was pages deep in Naruto fanfiction at the time, so I wrote this out around November 2019. Only now decided to polish it off a bit and post it as proof to myself that I can write a ficlet and not need to drag it out into a multi-chaptered monster. </p><p>There's no canon characters involved, no specific village mentioned. </p><p>Probably won't write more to it, as it was supposed to remain short. But I might write connected ficlets in the future if the mood strikes me.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Hiroko woke up this morning, she didn’t think she’d be given a mission by an eight year old. She was minding her own business, tending to the flower garden in front of her home when she hears someone clear their throat noisily.</p><p>“U-Ueno-san? Um…I… May I talk to you, p-please?” The person asks, nervously looking around as they speak.</p><p>Hiroko turns fully to face the person, to find the son of the local healer standing on the path to her house. She squints her eyes as she looks down at the kid, wondering what he could possibly want with her and <em>please go away, kid, I don’t want anything you’re selling.</em></p><p>“What do you want, kid?” She asks, her voice gruff and unfriendly. Her schedule is full for the day— it includes gardening, reading, and some light exercise. Not exactly exciting, especially for a retired ninja like herself, but she’s not in The Life anymore and she’s perfectly fine with that— thank<em> you very much</em>.</p><p>“U-Um… I heard y-you were a ninja? Before you m-moved here?” He asks, tentatively like he can sense that she’s not pleased to see him and wants him gone as soon as possible.</p><p>Hiroko sighs heavily before crossing her arms. “What of it?”</p><p>“I-I don’t have a lot of m-money, but.... I can w-work as your servant for a year to pay you back! So, p-please… Please, Ueno-san, help me.”</p><p>She falters at the offer. ‘<em>Servant? The hell is so important he’d sell himself like that?’</em></p><p>“Tell me what you need help with. We can work out payment once I know what I’m dealing with. <em>If</em> I even want to help you.”</p><p>“You k-know my f-father, Fujioka Kouta, the healer of the village? He… My father h-has been abusing my older sister, Setsuko. S-Sexually. I-I s-s-saw it happen t-the other d-day and I-I’m ashamed that I was too afraid to interfere. W-When I talked to my sister, after, she said that it’s b-been happening for y-years. S-Setsuko said she tried to tell o-our mother when it first happened, but she said Setsuko w-was just i-i-imagining things. I’m scared for her and I-I don’t know how to help. So… So, please, Ueno-san. Please kill my father. He’s too well-respected, ‘m afraid if it gets taken to the authorities that he’ll get away with it.”</p><p>She’s frozen, absolutely shocked at what this kid has told her. Ice quickly melts to a raging inferno once it sinks in. “That filthy fucking pig. <em>I’ll do it for free, kid.</em>”</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Hiroko takes the week to plan it; she decides to go with a favorite of hers— poison. For older victims, she likes to go with one that’ll mimic a heart attack. So that's what she goes with. She infiltrates their home while the wife is at work, the target is at the clinic, and the kids are at the local school. With the intel she got from the son, Hiroko locates the sake that only the target drinks from, each night after he gets home from the clinic, and puts several drops of the poison in it. Enough that a cup of sake should do the trick overnight.</p><p>After covering up her tracks and making sure she didn’t leave anything behind, she sneaks back out and heads home.</p><p>She’s watering her garden the following afternoon when the son comes back over with teary eyes but a huge smile on his face. “Thank you so much, Ueno-sama.”</p><p>Hiroko raises a hand to stop him from saying anything else, gives a nervous chuckle before saying, “H-hey, kid, no need for the upgraded honorific. And… I’m just glad I could help somehow. So don’t mention it. Really. To the grave, yeah?”</p><p>He nods furiously, “Of course! I won’t say a word, I swear.”</p><p>“Alright…” She pauses, looks from her garden to the kid’s face. He’s earnest and not as much of a brat as many of her neighbor’s kids are. Her garden <em>is</em> growing a bit too much to handle on her own these days. “Hey, have you ever gardened before?”</p><p>And if she happens to start teaching taijutsu— framed as self defence— to him and his sister, who he brings with him the next day. Well. There’s only so much she can do to keep herself busy these days. Might as well teach these twerps something useful. S’not like she cares or anything, really. It’s purely selfish, a nice distraction from the boring routine she’s built since she retired.</p><p>And if the group of kids she starts teaching “self defence” grows to the siblings' friends and their friends too, well. At least they’ll be prepared if something happens to the small village they live in— too far from a proper Ninja village to get help fast. She’s only doing her due diligence.</p><p>Hiroko privately admits to herself she may have gone soft since retirement. The villagers start coming to her for help— things that she used to do for D-rank missions when she was but a genin. It should irritate her. She’s busy enough as it is now. Her garden, teaching those little squirts, housework. Still, she can’t bring herself not to help. It’s ingrained in her and she hates it sometimes. But then a villager will smile and thank her for her help and— well.</p><p>She’s gone soft, really. That’s all there is to it.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading!</p><p> <a href="https://kayewritessometimes.tumblr.com">tumblr</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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